Modular floats are known and have been used in the past to provide buoyancy to many different types of marine devices, such as docks, diving platforms and the like. Modular floats are particularly well suited to support marine devices comprising platforms, as the number of floats can be varied according to the size of the platform to be supported.
Generally, floating marine platforms consist of an upper decking material, which is supported by a series of transverse and longitudinal support members. Various shapes and designs of buoyant materials have been proposed in the past, but for the most part, such designs have been difficult to use and not easily transported, either to the launching site, or in and out of the water once at the launching site.
Essentially, there are two types of modular floats available, those that are integral, and have closed shells, and those that are not integral, and which rely upon a closed cell foam, which fills the float, to provide the required positive buoyancy. This invention relates to an integral shell float, which is hollow and not filled with a closed cell foam.
A particular problem of the previously proposed modular floats, arises from the methods by which such modular floats attach to the marine structure they are intended to support. Some of the prior devices disclose the use of long through bolts which penetrate the float and violate the integrity of the flotation modules. This method of attachment has two disadvantages. Firstly, a closed cell foam must be inserted into the float, to provide buoyancy, and secondly, the marine device must be assembled upside-down, either on land, or in the water in order to attach the nuts to the bolts. Then later, the assembled structure must be flipped over, which can require a considerable amount of strength, and which is unsuitable for an isolated cottager for example.
A second kind of attachment system involves molding bolt holes into the float module, through which screws, or other fasteners can be inserted. However, the necessity of molding such bolt holes adds to the manufacturing costs. Further, it requires the use of special high density cross-linked polyethylene around such bolt holes, so as to provide a sufficient amount of strength around the hole. Finally, assembly is made awkward because it is necessary to crawl underneath the marine structure, if on land, or swim, if it is in the water, to complete the assembly. Also,the plastic tends to lose strength over time, resulting in failure of such floats at the bolt holes.